Nintendo has been having some problems lately with their new handheld. It hasn't performed as well as they expected. In the three months since release, most of the hype died down and Nintendo only sold around 700,000 units out of the almost 5 million shipped. Not since the Virtual Boy has Nintendo launched a handheld only to perform poorly.
Nintendo announced a price drop for the 3DS in late July to about $169.99 from the previous launch price of $249.99. An almost 33% price drop. The price drop will officially be in effect starting August 12, 2011.
So what about the current 3DS owners who shelled out the full $250 at launch? Well Nintendo has promised a ton of freebies. (Actually, only around 20 games.) Although Nintendo has only revealed 10, the other half surely to be announced soon, possibly after the price drop. Nintendo wants to make sure established 3DS owners don't feel broadsided by the sudden steep drop in price.
The First Ten
The first 5 are NES titles. The other 5 are for Game Boy Advance.
- Super Mario Bros-- Nintendo's classic masterpiece will be available for the third time in portable form since 1999's Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for the Game Boy Color and the NES Classics port to the Game Boy Advance. You'll be able to enjoy this classic game in its full uncompromised resolution on a handheld.
- Donkey Kong Jr-- The only game ever made that had Mario as the bad guy, Donkey Kong Jr was the arcade sequel to the original Donkey Kong.
- Balloon Fight-- A game which had you compete for survival in an arena full of foes. You use a balloon to get airborne and fly around the level.
- Ice Climber-- One of the NES's original launch titles, it was the only game that supported two-person multiplayer.
- The Legend of Zelda-- Will be a 3DS Virtual Console port of the original release. The game that inspired an entire saga for the past 25 years.
- Metroid Fusion-- One of the best Metroid games in the series for the Game Boy Advance comes to the 3DS virtual console. What a great choice to headline the lineup of GBA freebies.
- Mario Kart Super Circuit-- Super Circuit was the original portable version of Mario's famous racer, following up its immediate predecessor Super Mario Kart 64.
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong-- The GBA sequel to Donkey Kong '94 from the original Game Boy.
- Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance-- The SNES masterpiece that fans have been yearning for has finally been announced for the 3DS virtual console.
- WarioWare, Inc: Mega Microgames-- The wacky game that started the "microgame" concept. You don't play a full game, but rather little snippets at a time. In a minute you could play around 20 different microgames.
The next ten games are a mystery for now. But I am sure that when the price drop hits, we'll find out. And that is just around the corner!
So What Caused this Promotional Stunt?
Some say Nintendo screwed up by announcing big and delivering very little at launch. When announced at E3 2010, Nintendo unveiled countless developers, reboots, and brand new adventures from their classic franchises such as Star Fox, Zelda, and Mario. They even announced high profile games that would make it to the 3DS lineup. Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil. Surely at launch we'll all have awesome games to play on the new system!
Wrong. All the good games are still to be released and it's already almost five months since the system launched. For now we're stuck with Splinter Cell, Ocarina Time 3D, and Street Fighter. (Keep in mind there are plenty of other titles out, but these are just some of the well known titles)
Gee, I wonder why sales stopped in their tracks.
Another reason brought up as to why it's doing so poorly is bad marketing. Seems Nintendo doesn't know how to market to the core gamer, instead offering "lifestyle" ads and casual pampering.
What we want is Chris Redfield shooting zombies with a 3DS in his pocket! Or SOMETHING that will attract the hardcore gamer. Just because it worked with the Wii and DS doesn't mean we like it for the 3DS.
Nintendo put a lot of faith into the single killer app they had for the 3DS: Ocarina of Time 3D.
We all know what happens when there's only one big hitter in a team -- it doesn't hold out for long. Which is exactly what happened. They hoped Ocarina of Time 3D could keep gamers busy while they waited through months of casual marketing and sparse release schedules.
Bottom Line
I hope this week's price drop and marketing shift leads to a rise in sales and expectations. Because I really, really, really want a 3DS to try Resident Evil. The 3DS could be brilliant in what it can deliver, just like what the PlayStation Vita has planned, but at this moment there's nothing it can offer hardcore gamers.
Now back to Pokemon Black!
Oscar Chavez - Oscar is a game design student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He's very passionate about the video game industry as a whole.
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